Killer sent chilling net message: 'It's time'

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-10  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE Japanese man suspected of killing seven people in a knifing rampage in Tokyo foretold the mayhem in a series of messages posted to the Internet, including one just before the attack saying, "It's time," police and media reports said yesterday.

Tomohiro Kato, accused of ramming pedestrians with a truck on Sunday and then stabbing 17 bystanders in Tokyo's Akihabara district, posted a string of messages on an Internet bulletin board from his cell phone, a police spokesman said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity refused to release the messages, but news reports said they were posted in a threat titled, "I will kill people in Akihabara," starting hours before the stabbings.

"I want to crash the vehicle and, if it becomes useless, I will then use a knife. Goodbye, everyone," Kyodo News agency quoted one message as saying.

That was followed chillingly several hours later, the report said, by a message sent from Akihabara via cell phone that read: "It's time."

The killing started 20 minutes later.

The reported messages gave Japan a limited glimpse into the mind of man accused of one of the worst knife attacks in Japanese history. Police say the assault was the deadliest stabbing assault in Tokyo in recent memory. Kato said he had "gotten sick of the world," police said, but investigators are still trying to find out his motives and the reason why he chose Akihabara, or whether he had planned the criminal act over the past few days as reported.

Agents searched his apartment in an area about 150 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.

Government officials scrambled to respond. The ruling coalition held an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to come up with ways to secure crowded public spaces, and the government is considering limiting access to large knives like the one used on Sunday.

"Obviously, the suspect possessed the knife without a legitimate reason," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said. "I think we have to seriously consider what we can do to step up the restrictions."

Police say Kato - reportedly a factory worker - rammed a rented two-ton truck into a crowd of afternoon shoppers in Akihabara, a prime shopping area for electronic goods and a hangout for young people, particularly comic book fans.

Kato himself reportedly had a penchant for computer games and anime - like vast numbers of Japanese youths. Kyodo said that he listed a female computer game character as his "favorite person" in his junior high school yearbook.

After ramming the pedestrians, the killer jumped out and began stabbing the people he had knocked down with the truck before turning on horrified onlookers, police said.

The assault shocked Tokyo, which has a relatively low murder rate.

Yesterday the crime scene was covered with offerings of flowers, comic books and soft drinks left for the souls of the dead.

The offerings were shielded from the rain by a small white tent.

Takashi Kiuchi, who was on a high school judo team with one of the victims, said many Japanese live with the assumption that their country is safe.

"It's gotten so you can't even walk down a crowded street," he said.

Kato reportedly made his way to Tokyo from a neighboring region where he worked and headed for Akihabara because its main streets are closed to cars and open to large numbers of pedestrians on Sundays.

Guns are tightly restricted in Japan, and shootings are extremely rare.